


A Baker's Early Morning

by DictionaryWrites



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1030184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DictionaryWrites/pseuds/DictionaryWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a prompt on the Les Mis kink meme. Jean/Javert, AU in which the baker offers Jean an apprenticeship instead of pressing charges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Baker's Early Morning

Montreuil-sur-Mer was a nice city. Jean had been lucky to find a building so comfortably priced and with such a pleasant apartment above it. Mornings in the town were cold in the winters, but here on a summer’s day, the day was bright, and the sun on his back was beautifully warm - or at least, it would be soon enough.

The sun wouldn’t rise for another two hours or so.

He yawned against his shoulder as he set about working dough and making breads for that day’s sale. He wasn’t overly tired, having had a good sleep, though for the time being the shop wouldn’t open.

Fantine would come to the store a half hour or so after sunrise, likely with Cosette laughing and playing at her heels. Jean employed only Fantine, and Cosette was her daughter. The father had left her flat, and Jean had hired her despite that.

Jean remembered where he’d come from - stealing a loaf of bread, having the baker take pity on him, earning his keep. Jean Valjean was a charitable man: to be anything else would be wrong. Fantine had needed his help, and Jean had given it readily.

The sound of Cosette’s charming laughter, her smile, her readiness to help flour the rolling pins… Nothing was more musical to Jean than the laughter of a child.

"Monsieur Valjean?" He looked up from his work, closing the oven door and moving out into the store front.

"Inspector!" Jean greeted, and he stepped into the backroom, returning with a small loaf and an apple: the man’s regular breakfast. He held them out to Javert, and the inspector took them readily, offering the baker a very small smile. "Your patrol is yet to start?"

"An hour, and it shall." Javert said quietly, politely. The bite he took out of the apple was small as he held out two coins to Jean, and Jean took them, dropping them behind the desk. Javert settled in one of the two seats Jean had in the bakery’s front room, where Cosette usually sat with her knitting - she enjoyed it, and liked to help in any way that she could.

Jean settled down next to him, and he smiled as he watched Javert eat. This was a regular routine for both of them, and when he patrolled, Jean noticed Javert would linger around the baker’s shop. At the end of his shift, without fail, Javert would arrive at the bakery and would purchase another small loaf for later. 

"You should join me for dinner this evening." Javert froze, looking to Jean with wide eyes and slightly parted lips. "A meal on one’s own is never as satisfying."

"Monsieur." Javert said softly, vaguely protesting. The last time they’d taken an evening meal together, Javert had not gone home, and had fallen asleep with Jean, on his couch, as Jean had read. Javert did not read much himself, but he liked Jean to read to him. 

"If you don’t wish-"

"I wish to. I merely wish to remain… Professional." Jean’s smile was teasing as he leaned, pressing his fingers to Javert’s knee, casual, affectionate.

"Your professionalism is no fun at all." He teased, and then he stood to putter about the backroom again. Javert was left staring at his own knee, considering the lingering ghost of Jean’s touch.

"Monsieur Valjean-"

"Hmm?" Jean dipped his head from the backroom, catching Javert’s eye. 

"I will come." Javert said decidedly, and Jean’s affectionate smile became a radiant beam. 

"I’ll get bacon."

—-

"Good evening, Mademoiselle Cosette." Javert greeted politely, and Cosette grinned up at the inspector with her pretty smile and large eyes. 

"Hallo, Monsieur Inspector!" She returned brightly. She shifted from foot to foot, impatient, as she fiddled with the string of her bonnet. "Mama, aren’t we going home?"

"Just one moment, Cosette." Fantine was fastening her own coat as she stepped into the room, flour still clinging to her nose.

"Madame." Javert murmured, tapping his own nose, and Fantine looked to the window of the bakery, giving a soft sound as she noticed it in the reflection.

"This is what happens when I’m hurried!" She said jokingly with a soft laugh, wiping it away, and Cosette held out her hand for Fantine to take. The bell at the door jingled as they left, and Javert locked the shop door once they’d gone before stepping into the backroom.

He removed his hat, unbuttoning his coat before shrugging it off his shoulders and hanging up where he usually did. “Inspector.” Jean greeted, and Javert watched the pan by the fire as the butter crackled on the heat. 

Bacon: Jean had fulfilled his word. 

"Are you going to stay with me again?"

"I shouldn’t."

"Is that what I asked?" It drew a chuckle out of Jean’s guest, though Javert followed it with a short sigh. 

"It’s not good for a man of my age to sleep on plush seats."

"You’re barely forty!"

"All the same." Javert insisted, and Jean grinned, and then without Javert really realizing how he had done it the other man had stepped forwards, nimble, so that they were close and chest-to-chest.

"Take my mattress."

"We’re men of the same age, Jean Valjean, where would you sleep?"

"On my mattress." Javert stared at him, and Jean beamed, the smile sweet, affectionate, darling in a way that had affected Javert for God knows how many months.

"With me?" Javert asked in a whisper.

"The summer day is warm, but at night I freeze. It is a police inspector’s duty to keep his citizens safe: keep me warm."

"Jean, J-Jean." Javert said in a tiny voice, and Jean Valjean’s name was in his ears, all around his mind. Emblazoned upon his own heart, perhaps: his only mission in life. "Jean-"

"What is it?"

"The bacon is burning." Jean let out a yelp and ran back over to the fire, removing the pan from its place and taking it from the hot iron to drop onto a plate. 

"I’ll stay." Javert said as he settled at the table, taking the plate of bread and bacon the baker pushed towards him. Jean looked up, seeming a little surprised.

"You will?"

"You’ll have to be patient with me, I’ve- I’ve not bedded another man before."

"You needn’t tonight." Jean murmured softly. "If you don’t want to."

"What man says I don’t want to?" Javert looked to the food in front of him, and Jean followed suit. Despite his attempt, he did not fully manage to hide the smile on his lips, and Javert noticed the smile.

Javert committed it to memory, enjoying the sight. “It suits you to smile.”

"It suits any man to smile." Jean returned, but Javert shook his head.

"It suits you especially." The inspector maintained, and as Jean met his gaze, Javert offered his own, gentle smile.

"As it does you." Jean murmured, and both of them settled from there into companionable silence.


End file.
